In
computing
Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, hardware and softw ...
,
net is a
command
Command may refer to:
Computing
* Command (computing), a statement in a computer language
* command (Unix), a Unix command
* COMMAND.COM, the default operating system shell and command-line interpreter for DOS
* Command key, a modifier key on A ...
in
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
OS/2
OS/2 is a Proprietary software, proprietary computer operating system for x86 and PowerPC based personal computers. It was created and initially developed jointly by IBM and Microsoft, under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci, ...
(including
eComStation and
ArcaOS
ArcaOS is a Proprietary software, proprietary operating system based on OS/2, developed and marketed by Arca Noae, LLC under license from IBM. It was first released in 2017 and builds on OS/2 Warp 4.52 by adding support for new hardware, fixing ...
),
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
, and
ReactOS
ReactOS is a Free and open-source software, free and open-source operating system for i586/amd64 personal computers that is intended to be binary-code compatibility, binary-compatible with computer programs and device drivers developed for Wind ...
used to manage and configure the operating system from the
command-line. It is also part of the
IBM PC Network Program for
DOS.
[IBM PC Network Program 1.0 Users Guide](_blank)
/ref>
Overview
The command is primarily used to manage network resources.
/ref> It is an external command implemented as net.exe.
/ref> When used in a batch file
A batch file is a Scripting language, script file in DOS, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows. It consists of a series of Command (computing), commands to be executed by the command-line interpreter, stored in a plain text file. A batch file may contain a ...
, the /Y or /N switches can be used to unconditionally answer Yes or No to questions returned by the command.net command has several sub-commands that can differ from one implementation or operating system version to another.
On Windows CE .NET 4.2,
Example
The net use command has several network-related functions.
Connecting network drive and printer
net use can control mounting (" mapping" in Microsoft terminology) drive shares and connecting shared printers in a network environment. This command makes use of the SMB (server message block) and the NetBIOS protocol on port 139 or 445. The basic Windows XP configuration enables this functionality by default. Thus users can connect to and disconnect from shared resources such as computers, printers and drives.
net use can display a list of network-connection information on shared resources.
Null session connections
net use also connects to the IPC$ (interprocess communication share). This is the so-called null session connection, which allows unauthenticated users.
The basic syntax for connecting anonymously is:
net use \\IP address\IPC$ "" /u:""
For example, typing at the command prompt:
net use \\192.168.1.101\IPC$ "" /u:""
attempts to connect to the share IPC$ of the network 192.168.1.101 as an anonymous user with blank password. If successfully connected to the target machine, a lot of information can be gathered such as shares, users, groups, registry keys and more. This would provide a hacker with a lot of information about a remote user. This has changed in Windows NT 4.0 SP6 already. In Windows 2000 "null session connections" could have been enabled after changes of the system-configuration.
Similar commands in other OSes
*Novell NetWare
NetWare is a discontinued computer network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, using the Internetwork Packet Exchange, IPX network protocol. The f ...
**map for mapping volumes ( network drives) to drive letters
**capture for capturing print queues to LPT ports
See also
* List of DOS commands
* MS-Net
References
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
Microsoft TechNet
*
{{Windows commands
Microcomputer software
OS/2 commands
Windows administration
Windows communication and services